Presidential Office Secretary-General Yu Shyi-kun confirmed last night that he will run for chairmanship of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Saying that he had submitted his resignation to President Chen Shui-bian (
Yu made the remarks last night in response to reporters' questions as he attended a memorial service for the late DPP chairman Chiang Peng-chien (
Earlier yesterday, a Yu aide told reporters that the party needs a leader who is unselfish and has a steady character and that is why Yu sees running for the chairmanship as his unavoidable duty.
Yu is one of 18 DPP members involved in setting up the party, and thus he has deep feelings for it, the aide said, noting that Yu has the responsibility to lead the party and get back the people's support for it.
Legislator Chai Trong-rong (
"I will go to the party headquarters tomorrow morning to register as a candidate and make public my election platform," he said.
The election will be held on Jan. 15. Candidate registration opens today and closes on Tuesday.
Legislator Lin Chung-mo (林重謨) said yesterday that he would also register, but later said he was considering not running after learning that Yu would enter the race.
"If I decide not to run, it is not because of [Legislator] Tsai Chi-fang (蔡啟芳) but because Yu is a formidable competitor," he said. "I will also try to talk Tsai out of it." Lin also commented on Vice President Annette Lu's (呂秀蓮) recent flip-flop about being acting DPP chairperson.
"Have you ever heard of the Taiwanese saying that goes `someone desperately craves for something but pretends he is shy?' She fits that description perfectly," Lin said.
He said it was not a good thing for those in power to think they could get themselves off the hook by criticizing other people.
Tsai, meanwhile, threw his hat into the ring, saying that "extraordinary times require extraordinary people."
Tsai said he is the only DPP member who has the experience of serving as chairman of both county and city chapters.
Although he does not have an impressive educational background and has served time in jail, Tsai said he has the negotiation skills and close relations with grassroots DPP members needed to do the job.
He berated other DPP members who found fault with Lu even before she took over as chairperson and he criticized Yu for not moving fast enough to resolve problems between President Chen and Lu.
Criticizing Lu as an "ambitious woman good at hard and soft approaches to get what she wants," DPP Legislator Lin Cho-shui (
"The country is bound to be plunged into dire political straits if we have a strong-willed party chairman in competition against a masterful president and a valiant premier," he said.
DPP Legislator Lee Wen-chung (
In other developments, former DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) plans to publish an open letter to President Chen on Monday saying that it is inappropriate for high-ranking officials in the Presidential Office to campaign for the party election and to offer some advice about a possible Cabinet reshuffle.
Lin is also planning to run an open letter to all DPP members addressing the party's direction and the chairmanship election.
Both letters will be about 1,500 Chinese characters and Lin said he would tell all newspapers that want to cover his letters that they must print the full texts in order to avoid misquotes. Additional reporting by Jewel Huang
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